The Last of Us Online was reportedly in development for four years with a team of “hundreds” before its sudden cancelation
The cancelation caused a stir at Sony
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Naughty Dog’s canceledThe Last of Usmultiplayer game was reportedly deep into development before it was canceled, a decision that reportedly caused a stir atSony.
That’s according to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who shared some insight into the scrapped project on theFriends Per Secondpodcast (viaGamesRadar). While at first discussing the recentBungie layoffs, as well as concerns about theDestiny 2studio’s upcoming extraction shooterMarathon, Schreier soon turned to talking about Sony’s current live service games, likeConcord.
The reporter called Sony’s strategy to push live service games “trend-chasing to the extreme” and “egregious”, especially when you look at online games that have “pivoted from single-player studios”.
Schreier claimed that theHorizon Zero Dawnonline game, which was announced back in 2022, is “still in development” but doesn’t know if it will ever come out. He acknowledged that there are rare cases where live service games can succeed, likeHelldivers 2.
On the topic ofThe Last of Us Online, Schreier said it was “in development for something like four years with a team in the hundreds”, before it wascanceled last December.
“That is an expensive proposition for something that was a miss,” he added. “And that project, that getting canceled was not a bloodless endeavor. There were some heads rolling at Sony as a result of that one.”
When Naughty Dog shared the announcement, it said that it scrapped the project because it didn’t want to “become a solely live service games studio” and that it would otherwise have to put all resources behind multiplayer projects.
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“So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage,” the developer said at the time.
Schreier added that he thought Naughty Dog’s decision to cancelThe Last of Us Onlinewas the right decision, as it wouldn’t be beholden to live service games like other studios.
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